Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-02-18
TIE MATTHEW'S CASE.

In making puDilc the facts IN th'
Matthews case, the Senate hai
placed the President in a mos
humiliating position, or, to speal
more accurately, has enabled tn,
public to see in what "A humiliatiDe
position the President has placed
himself. For about a year the
President has now kept this loca
politician in a fat office, in defiance
of successive reflections by the Sen
ate, and in disregard of the wishes
of nearly all citizens Of the District
of Columbia, who, the Senate states,
opposed his confirmation with sub
stantial unanimity without regard
to color, politics or OccupatiOn."-
The President has pretended that
he insisted upon this nomination
because the opposition Of citizens
of the District had largely subsidized
but the Senate shows that in this
plea he is not honest, for he made
the second appointment Of Mat
thews Immediately after the adj
iOurnment of the Senate last Au-
gust, and only month after the
first rejection, when there had been
no time for the opposition to sub
side, and moreover, the Senate de
clares, it has not in fact subsidized
to this day. Naturally men will
ask with some surprise how it has
come to pass that the President has
put himself into so peculiar a pre-
dicament.
Again the only answer made is a
dishonest subterfuge. The Presi-
dent pretends that che desires in
this way to tender a Just recOgni.
ton and good faith toward cOlored
fellow citizens But the Senate,
with a cruelty which is justified in
this case, shows that the President,
in order to appoint Matthews, can
obscure partisan who had never
been q slave, and who therefore rep
resented the enfranchised race only
by the accident Of color actually
turned out of the same Office Fred
erick Douglass, the most distin-
guished representative of the col
ored race in the world, who had
been a slave, and that just recogni.
ton of the enfranchised, if honestly
desired by the President, would
have caused the retention of Dong
lass in the Office to which Mat
thews, the obscure Democratic par
tisan, has been so persistently ap.
pointed. OF the conduct Of Mr.
Douglass in that Office there had
been no complaint. Not a person
asked for his removal, except those
who were hungry for his place, OF
those citizens of the District whose
prejudice against any cOlored man
leads them to object equally to
Matthews.
In this case it is clear that the
President has no honest excuse tOI
his action. He would have been
far less humiliated in public estima-
ton if he had frankly avOwed from
the outset his wish to reward a col
Ored Democratic politician, Fol-
Matthews has no other claim to
consideration. 1t is a notorious
fact that he, in disObedience Of the
orders of the President, and in VIC
lation of the Civil Service princi-
pies upon which the President pre-
tends to place such stress, spent
time during the last Congressional
campaign in electiOneering a0d
pipe-laying for the defeat Of the
Republican candidate for Congress
in the Troy district. The PreSl-
dent not only winks at this viola
ton of his rules, but even rewards
1t openly by insisting once more
upon the appointment of this OBJ
scure partisan in place OF Mr. Doug
lass. 1t is plain that he sacrifices
all his Civil Service principles in
order to reward a partisan. At
the same time he insults the col.
ored race by turning out its most
widely honored representative and
substituting person whose only
title to public notice is the fact that
he has done political Jobs for the
Democratic party.